Sheilagh stayed late and I didn’t want to interrupt because I knew there was a good reason. Then Judie talked to Mary for a bit.
When I offered her a suggestion to change the wording for her essay, she thought and chose an alternative. I commended her for thinking for herself. I told her that I didn’t want to bully her.
I told her about the fact that most of my college literature professors would talk and talk about “their (correct) interpretations” to the point of ruining the literature experience.
I told her about my professor at FAU for my last elective graduate class in American Lit who was the best teacher I ever had. He encouraged and expected us to talk about our reading and it was such an eye opening and wonderful experience. It made the class dynamic and interesting. He would take an hour or so here and there to share his wealth of knowledge about the literature and the historical period in which it was written.
Then, after great discussion, we would go out ourselves and find peer reviewed articles to choose to study and read for the essay test.
Mary said that this was based on Plato, that his method included discussion and discovery and then independent study and learning. How cool…look what I learned today. Our class was short but very rich. She also did a job of writing for her second essay.